The 2025 Year-End Film & TV Report from Luminate provides a data-heavy snapshot of an entertainment industry transitioning from expansion to stabilization, as the economics of streaming, production, and global fandom force a recalibration of business models. According to the report, the past year marked a decisive shift away from peak TV output and the volume-driven strategies that defined the early 2020s, replaced by a deliberate focus on retention, cost discipline and cross-platform engagement. As CEO Rob Jonas states, “The industry is no longer changing — it has changed.”
One of the report’s most significant findings is that, for the first time since Luminate began tracking, the most-watched streaming original TV season in the U.S. did not come from Netflix. Peacock’s “Love Island USA” topped the 2025 rankings with 18 billion minutes viewed, a 150% year-over-year surge. It became the first unscripted original ever to lead the annual charts, demonstrating how format migration—in this case from CBS to Peacock—can yield dramatic audience expansion. Meanwhile, Netflix’s highest entry, “Stranger Things” season 5, ranked fourth with 11.2 billion minutes. Six Netflix titles still made the top ten, but competitors HBO Max and Paramount+ claimed the second and third spots with “The Pitt” (13 billion minutes) and “Landman” (11.4 billion minutes).
Overall U.S. viewing of original streaming series rose sharply from 21.8 billion hours in 2024 to 25 billion in 2025, while original film viewing dipped slightly to 4.6 billion hours. Major blockbuster originals such as Netflix’s “KPop Demon Hunters” and “Happy Gilmore 2” drove engagement, though the report notes the absence of theatrical megahits on streaming of the scale seen in prior years. Netflix’s market share of U.S. original viewing time declined from 63% in 2024 to 59% in 2025, dropping below 60% for the first time, while Prime Video, HBO Max, Apple TV and Peacock each expanded modestly. Disney+ suffered a steep contraction, falling from a 9% share in 2022 to just 3% in 2025.
The competitive landscape also continued to diversify at the top end of the charts. Luminate’s analysis of the ten most-watched originals on each major SVOD service shows that hits from rivals are beginning to close the gap with Netflix’s flagship titles, though Netflix still maintains a steep advantage beyond the top tier. A growing number of platforms demonstrated the ability to launch breakout successes: HBO Max with “The Pitt,” Apple TV with “Your Friends & Neighbors,” Hulu with “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” and Paramount+ with Taylor Sheridan’s prolific “Landman” franchise, which accounted for eight of the streamer’s ten most-watched titles.
Production trends paint an industry under continued contraction. U.S.-produced TV premieres declined 11% year over year, following a 21% drop in broadcast premieres, a 10% decline in cable output and an 8% reduction in SVOD originals. HBO Max saw the sharpest individual downturn, cutting its streaming originals by 50%, while Netflix’s 6% decline aligned with the broader SVOD trend. Prime Video and Disney+ were the only major platforms to increase output, with Amazon rising to 59 premieres.
Geographically, Hollywood’s production exodus accelerated. Only 83 major scripted film and TV projects filmed in Los Angeles in 2025—a 26% decline from 2024 and more than 50% below historical peaks. New York and Atlanta remained depressed from earlier highs, while Canada and the UK continued to absorb U.S. productions due to more favorable incentives. Nearly half of major U.S. projects filmed outside the country in 2025, rising to a 55–45 international split. The report notes that although political debates surfaced around tariffs for films shot abroad, reinvigorating domestic production remains an unresolved challenge.
Unscripted production was also hard hit, plunging 31% across genres. Food, crime, workplace, travel, home makeover and culture categories all contracted, with sports acting as the rare exception, buoyed by titles such as Netflix’s “America’s Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys.” Serialized drama continued its multi-year decline, while procedurals expanded, benefiting from lower cost structures and sustained viewership reliability. HBO Max’s “The Pitt” exemplified the category’s momentum.
In film, Universal’s “Wicked” led U.S. streaming minutes in 2025 with 8.4 billion minutes watched, followed by Netflix’s breakout “KPop Demon Hunters,” which reached 7.9 billion minutes and became Netflix’s most-watched film ever. The soundtrack was a major force multiplier: daily U.S. audio streams surpassed 10 million for months, with international streams peaking at four times domestic levels, sustaining a cross-media feedback loop that kept the title culturally dominant.
Streaming debuts of box-office hits produced wide variability. Peacock’s “Jurassic World: Rebirth,” despite Peacock’s smaller user base, drew more than 1.1 billion minutes in its first streaming week—outperforming family blockbusters such as “A Minecraft Movie” on HBO Max and “Lilo & Stitch” on Disney+. R-rated theatrical successes “Sinners” and “Weapons” also delivered strong streaming openings, surpassing some major franchise titles on Disney+.
Survey insights signal growing audience fragmentation and evolving expectations. Casual moviegoers—roughly a quarter of U.S. consumers—expressed the strongest unmet demand for comedies, while Millennial and Gen Z viewers disproportionately represented the “avid” and “die-hard” theatrical audiences. When deciding whether to see a film in theaters, casual consumers cited story (22%), genre (15%) and word of mouth (11%) as leading factors. On the subject of generative AI, 39% of U.S. consumers aware of the technology said they would be less interested in AI-written content; however, 25% indicated increased interest, and younger, more passionate fans showed higher curiosity levels.
As Luminate summarizes, the industry’s success in 2026 will hinge on mastering a new equilibrium: strategic commissioning, efficient production, diversified platform strategies and an increasingly transmedia approach to fandom. The report concludes that “the path to success requires a deep, data-backed understanding of how film and television interact with music, technology and regional cultures,” emphasizing that the era of perpetual content expansion has definitively ended.
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